Friends Who Are Going

Friends Attending

Friends Attending

Friends Attending

Description

Atmosphere and Affect in Contemporary Exhibitions

Johanna Burton is Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement at the New Museum. Her talk will explore tendencies in current exhibition-making that privilege revisionist or alternative historical narratives. In large-scale biennials, thematic museum shows, as well as galleries and independent spaces, artworks are being constellated in new ways, producing “atmospheres” between objects and viewers, and placing into question individual objects’ previous denotations. Such a shift can be discussed via theories of affect, and gives rise to questions relating to new modes of liberatory meaning-making, as well as the dangers of cultural amnesia.

The Graduate Lecture Series invites students, faculty, and the general public to engage with emerging and established artists, curators, critics, and historians from local and international art communities.